This Indian Executive Made ₹21 Crore For Leaves He Didn’t Take In 50 Years!

Could you picture a year without any personal holidays, sick days or extended weekends? The pure joy of enjoying that hard-earned casual leave is what gets so many of us through the work year! But chill vibes and convalescence are not all you can hope to achieve from those occasional absences from work. Time off has been known to boost productivity and make for happier and more dedicated employees.

But there’s one Indian who has been quite content with having his nose to the grind. Anil Manibhai Naik, the now-retired non-executive chairman of industrial conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) made history encashing his accrued leaves. The man made a staggering $3 million (Rs 21.3 crores) last year for unused leaves in his career spanning five decades!

Imagine that folks- no outta town shaadis to attend, no getaways and no sick leaves for fifty years! A son of a village primary school teacher in Gujarat, Naik joined L&T as junior engineer in 1965. The man rose through the ranks and eventually steered the construction major’s entry into the defence. According to L&T’s annual report for 2017-18, Naik earned Rs 19 crores ($2.7 million) last year after encashing all his accumulated leaves.

On January 26 this year, he was awarded the celebrated Padma Vibhushan. He earned India’s second-highest honour for civilians through his contribution to India’s corporate sector. Interestingly, this government honour does little to trump Naik’s 2018.

His total payout included a base salary of Rs 2.7 crores and came to Rs 130 crores for the year. His retirement gratuity benefits and the exercise of his stock options netted him more than Rs 100 crores of his total!

The Rs 2,574 crore L&T group also offers IT solutions and financial services. Naik is known for famously fending off takeover bids by the Ambani family in the late 1990s. He announced in August 2016 that he would give away 75% of his income to charitable causes over his lifetime reports Business Insider. Now there’s a hard worker with a heart of gold!